As global operations in the fashion, apparel and textile sector—badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic—slowly resume, 15 major companies, brands and organisations recently published an open letter stressing the need for the sector to build back better and more sustainably from this crisis and to ensure that the pandemic helps speed up the sector’s transformation.

Launched during 2020’s virtual World Water Week, the letter’s signatories include multinationals like H&M, Tchibo, Burberry, PVH, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and Primark as well as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC), a group of apparel and footwear brands and retailers, the Alliance for Water Stewardship, UK-based Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF).

Other companies, brands and organisations can still sign up to the Open Letter to add their voices to the call for a more sustainable future for the industry, according to a WWF press release.